Hating This Might Mean You’re A Genius

Does your skin crawl at the sound of someone eating popcorn too loudly at the movies? Do you make this Liz Lemon face when your cube-mate busts out a bag of noisy potato chips? You're probably a genius, according to science (well, maybe). The Telegraph reports that according to a recent study out of Northwestern University, highly creative people are often physically unable to drown out annoying background noises – including loud chewing. Researchers first studied participants' reactions to a number of unlikely, noisy scenarios in a very short amount of time. Next, they asked them to describe their past creative achievements in areas including visual arts, creative writing, scientific discovery, and culinary arts. The results showed a strong link between participants with the largest number of creative achievements and those who showed a sensitivity to background noise. "The propensity to filter out 'irrelevant' sensory information....happens early and involuntarily in brain processing," the lead author of the study Darya L. Zabelina explained. "[It] may help people integrate ideas that are outside the focus of attention, leading to creativity in the real world." Consider this permission to keep your headphones on at work all day long.